With these amazing Christmas cards made by children on Momio, we wish you happy holidays. See you again in 2018!

Klarra123, Momio Poland

fluffi Filou, Momio Germany

Piirtohullu, Momio Finland

mille makron, Momio Denmark

Milou!, Momio Sweden

ellenm222, Momio Norway

suggarhart, Momio Netherlands

About the author:

Silja Nielsen, Momio

Silja Nielsen is Head of Community and Safety at Momio. She has worked at the company since 2010. Silja has a master’s degree in Media Studies and is interested in privacy, online behaviour and online communities.

Lill Hennschen, Momio

Lill has been employed as a German Community Manager since May 2013 and works with content creation, online safety and translation. She has a Bachelor degree in Humanities and Communication and a special interest in equality studies. Besides this, she volunteers for Red Barnet Ungdoms project MobSquad – an initiative trying to prevent bullying and segregation in primary schools.

‘Hello, can you put a ❤ on your wall, without comment, only a heart, then send this message to your female contacts. After putting one ❤ on the wall of the person who sent you this message. If anyone asks why you have so many hearts on your wall do not answer. It is for women only to remember it’s the week of breast cancer prevention! ❤ Check your boobies!! Hold your finger down on the message and hit forward.’

My first thought was to ignore it, but after a while I realized that it annoyed me SO much. Mostly, because we on Momio tell our users that they should not send scary chain messages. Now you probably think that there is a difference between chain messages sent by children and adults. And that the woman who sent me the chain message meant well by bringing forward such a sad and important message: That we all should care about breast cancer.

Yes, she meant well. But to me there isn’t any difference. Both messages aim to scare the receiver.

On Momio we see chain messages that tell other kids about ghosts and living dead that will “haunt you if you don’t forward this message to ten of your friends”. If you don’t you’ll die. My “cancer chain message” had the same clear message even though it wasn’t written. You COULD die from cancer (if you ignore this message), and if you don’t, you should feel bad that you didn’t take the time to put a heart on your Facebook page.

Hopefully, kids on Momio will learn that scary chain messages should not be sent and definitely not forwarded since that will not prevent anything bad from happening. We see kids that truly believe those scary stories about ghosts and other odd creatures. So we ask our users not to send them, with an explanation why.

So please don’t share scary chain messages on social media, and please teach your kids why they shouldn’t either – no matter how well they mean it. ❤

About the author:

Lina Pilgaard, Momio

Lina is the Danish Community Manager and has worked for Momio since 2014. She has been working with kids all her adult life – working as a teacher and a school librarian. She is interested in safety and enjoys helping out the parents who contact Momio support about social media phenomena.